Cornwall Pilgrims

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Saint Congarby REV. CANONG . H. DOBLE

N the parish of Lanivet in mid-Cornwall, in a lonely spot at the bottom of a hill,I $ miles east of Lanivet church and about z miles south of Bodmin, is a farm calledI t. Ingonger (St. Gonger 1588, but in 1284Stungongar), on which is the site of a

chapel, with a cross and holy well. I hope to show in the following pages that thisapparently insignificant little place provides a valuable clue to the rediscovery of thetrue story of a once well-known saint, who must have played an important part in thegreat monastic and missionary movement which began in Wales in the 5th century,and , after evangelizing Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, crossed the Channel and helpedto create Christian Brittany. It is worth while making some attempt to do this, for mostof the statements in the medieval Life of S. Congar are far from true and have misledscholars for centuries.

The name Ingonger, if really ancient, might be an expanded form of Congar.There are several other examples of the use of this prefix to the name of a Celtic saint,such as Ingenoc (mentioned in the Life of S. Winnoc as his companion-he seems to bethe Connoc who has given his name to Boconnoc and other places in Cornwall andBrittany), Endellion and perhaps Indract. It may be, however, that ’ St. Ingonger ’ isonly a corruption of the 13th century Stungongar (1). I n any case it is certain that thesite owes its name to S. Congar.

It will be necessary to begin with a brief survey of the area of his cult .

S. Congar is a pan-Celtic saint. No other chapel is dedicated to him in Cornwall,but there is a place called Tregunger (2) in the parish of St. Clether, north of Bodmin,and, as we shall see, there is reason for supposing tha t S. Congar may have been associatedwith the eponym of St. Clether. I n Brittany he is the patron saint of LandCda (3), onthe coast of LCon, near Lannilis ; and a little to the south of LandCda, in the parish of

Stungongar must mean either ‘ Bend ’ (s tum)or ‘ Extent ’ (or ‘ Grant ’ -ystyn) ‘ of Congar’.Langdon (Old Cornish Crosses, 1896, p. 52 ) gives three modern spellings of the name-‘ St.Ingonger, Gunger, or Gonger as it is locally called ’, but says the cross is called ‘ St. GongerCross ’. The Lysons refer to it on pp. 774-5 of the volume on Cornwall in their MugnaBritannia, printed in 1814, and say, ‘ At St. Congar, in this parish, said to have been in ancienttimes the residence of a hermit, was a chapel and well, dedicated to that saint ’. The lateMr Charles Henderson, in some unpublished notes, says, ‘ the chapel has wholly disappeared.The cross is built into the hedge at the turning to Fenton-Pits above the farm, while the so-calledHoIy Well is reduced to a mere drain or gutter. It was perfectly dry on the occasion of m y visit.It lies in a cul-de-sac lane below the farmyard, and is covered by a low superstructure of unhewnstone. In spite of the absence of documentary evidence and of any remains, persistent traditionand the name of the estate prove conclusively that a chapel existed here in Celtic times ’. Fentonmust get its name from this holy well.

Tregonger in 1666.

‘ Saint Gongard ’ n the diocesan Ordo. See the Bulletin de la SOC.rch. de FinistZre, 1904,

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p. 311.



SAINT CONGAR

PlouzanC, about six miles west of Brest, is a place called Langongar (i.e, ‘ Monastery ’

or ‘ Hermitage of Congar ’). In the SE. of Brittany, near Redon, in the diocese of Vannes,

is a parish of Saint-Congard (4). The name appears in five other Breton place-names,

mostly in the west of the province. In the parish of Ploujean, N. of Morlaix, are a CoetCongar ( 5 ) and a Roscongar, and near HCnansal (E. of St.-Brieuc) is a place called

Launay-Congar. In the south of Cornouaille we find a manor of Kergongar in Melgvennear Rosporden (6), and a Lescongar in the parish of Plouhinec, near Audierne. Some of

these may be secular names. A Congar appears in the lists of the Counts of Cornouaille

in the Cartularies of LandCvennec, Quimper and QuimperlC (7), and Les-Congar might

be the name of his residence. On the other hand, there are numerous Les names in the

Cap-Sizun district and at least two of them (Les-Mahalon in Mahalon and Lescoff in

Plougoff) seem to mark the residence of the eponym of a parish. Plouhinec is dedicatedto S. Winnoc, who is honoured near Lanivet.

In Wales a S. Congar is honoured at Llangefni in Anglesey, which is called Villa

Sti. Cungari in a document dating from the end of the 15th century ( 8 ) and plwyf

[= parish of] Kyngar in a 16th century list of the parishes of Wales (9). Not far away,

near Criccieth in Carnarvonshire, is an Ynys Gyngar. In Flintshire the same saint isthe patron of Hope, formerly called Llangyngar and Plwyf Cyngar. Edward Lhwyd inhis I tinerary (1699) stated that the holy well ‘ Fynnon Gyngar ’, is ‘ within a field of the

church ’. Th e parish feast at Llangefni is on 7 November ( lo) , and on the same date at

Hope (11). It is, no doubt, owing to the cult of S. Cyngar at Llangefni that the author

of the 12th century Life of S. Cybi, the patron of Holyhead in Anglesey, says that Kengair

was one of his ten disciples, and later introduces into his narrative a ‘ cousin ’ of the saint,

called Kengar, an old man who lives entirely on milk and for whom S. Kepius has to

provide a cow (12). It is a common proceeding with hagiographers of this period to

make the saints of adjoining churches into disciples or relatives of their particular hero.

The Cyngar honoured in North Wales must have had a considerable cult in the Middle

Ages, since his name is found on 7 November in a large number of Welsh kalendars of

the 15th and 16th centuries, and in three rather late martyrologies(13). It

was for this

reason that the Bollandists printed the Vita S. Congari under 7 November in the thirdNovember volume of the A ctu Sanctorum in 1910. But since in Somerset, where that

Vita was written, S. Congar is (as we shall see) invariably found honoured on a different

Congar has remained a personal name in Brittany; a well-known theologian is called Pire

Bull. dioc. d’histoire de Quimper, 1935, p. 208.

ib. 1933,p . 187.

Congar.

’Concar in t h e first, Congar in the last two.* Arch. Camb. ser. I , t. IV , pp. 262-4. The tenants of the villa hold of the saint-‘ St i Cynguria quo tenentes tenent ’.

Grosjean, Cyngur Sant (Anal. Boll. tom XLII), p. 106, note 7.loArch. Camb. Ioc. cit., Hist. oftheIsland of Anglesey 1775, p. 57

Edw. Lhwyd says ‘ Their wake is on Gwyl Gynzar vizt ye Sunday after ye eleventh of

November ’, bu t this seems a slip.

l2 Vita S. Kebii, Brit. Mus. Vesp. A, XIV, rinted in W . J. Rees, Lives of the Cavlbro BritishSaints (I shall refer to this edition as C.B.S.), pp . 183-4.

l3 Cod. Brit. Mus. Reg. z A, XIII , written about 1220-2, most probably near Gloucester, orsomewhere in the SW. ’ (Warner and Gilson); the Altemps Martyrology, written a t Konvich inthe 14th century, and the Nonvich Martyrology, ‘ closely akin to the last-named ’, (B .M. CottonMSS. Julius B, VII).

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ANTIQUITY

day (27 Novem ber) , i t would ap pear that he is a different person from th e Cyngar of Ho peand Llangefni.

I n Pembrokeshire there is a Llanwngar 3 miles east of St. Davids.I n t he Vita S. Dubricii in the Liber Landavensis a Con gur is found , in the l is t of that

saint’s disciples, and a monastery in Gower is called Lann Conuur and Cella Conguri

in a charter following the V ita S. Oudocei (14).

I n n on e of these thre e countries has any Life of the sain t been preserved, nor haveany t radi t ions about h im survived (with the except ion of one Saint-Congard legend towhich I shall refer later) . N or doe s any place in Cornwall, Brittany o r Wales claim topossess his relics. Hi s nam e is not found in any Breton or Co rnish kalendar ormartyrology. But in So me rset we f ind his cult strongly established at an early period.A monastery called Cungresbyr i is mentioned in th e 9th c entury, and the chu rch of aparish ne ar C ongre sbury, called Badgworth, w hich may have belonged t o it , is dedicatedto him. Th ere are num erous references to S. Congar’s body restin g at Con gresbu ry allthro ugh t he M idd le Ages, and m ost S om erset kalendars contain his festival.

He tells

us how the king sent for him on e Chr is tmas Eve ( the year is not given) an d bestowed onh im ‘ two monasteries, which are called in the S axon tongu e Cun gresby ri an d Banuwille,together with a very valuable silk pallium and as much incense as a strong man couldcarry ’ (15). Unfor tunately no mention is made of the saints honoured in these twomonasteries. A hundred and thir ty years later , however, we have a definite statementthat the body of Saint Congar was bur ied at Congresbury, in the document ent i t led‘ Resting Places of the Saints ’, writ ten about the year 1000, and consisting of a list ofsaints whose bodies were possessed by English churches (16). T h e Anglo-Saxon vers ionof th is work(Br i t . Mus., Sto we 960 and C .C.C. C amb ., 201) says, ‘ ‘ lrhonne resteth sanctu sCon garus, confessor, on Cun gresby rig ’. T h e entry is practically the same in the Lat inversion (B.M. Co tton Vitellius A. 11) : ‘ Sanctusque C ongarus in loco qui dici tur Cun-gresbyrig ’. A l is t of saints honoured i n th e West of England, of m uch later date (14th

century) , also in the Br i t ish Museum (Har ley MSS. 3776), has the following entry :

‘ 124. Ap ud Congresbery, qu e distat a Bristollia x mil. , jacet Sts. Congarus ’. T h e r eare several references in wills of the 15th and 16th centuries to the light kept b urnin g inCon gresbu ry chu rch before his shrin e (or statue). T h u s in 1411 ‘W illiam Felawe, calledCongresbury, Rector of Por t ishead ’, lef t a bequest ‘ o the l ights of St. Kather ine, St.

T h e fi rs t mention of C ongresbury is in Bishop Asser’s Life of King Alfred.

l4 Th e Book of Llan D av (ed. J . Gwenogvryn Evans and John Rees, 1893. I shall refer to thisas ‘B .L.D. ’), pp. 80,144-5.

l5 ‘ Cumque ah eo frequenter licentiam revertendi [to St . Davids] quaererem, et nullo mod0impetrare possern ; tandem . . . diluculo vigiliae Natalis Domini advocatus ad eum ; tradiditmihi duas epistolas, in quibus erat multiplex supputatio omnium rerum quae erant in duobusmonasteriis, quae Saxonice cognom inantur Cungresb ury et Banuville, et mihi eodem die tradidit

illa duo m onasteria cum om nibus quae in eis erant ’. (p . 68 of W. H. tevenson’s edition of Asser,Oxford, 1904. H e says, ‘ Nothing is known of the m onasteries there beyond the present passage ’).No doubt both C ongresbury and Banwell had long been important Celtic monasteries (the wordSaxonice suggests that they had originally borne Celtic names). T he West Saxon kings constantlyhanded over to diocesan bishops of their ow n appointment suppressed, or derelict, religious housesfounded in Celtic times. If only Alfred’s ‘two epistle s ’ had been prese rved , we should know m uchthat we greatly want to know about Cong resbury and Banwell.

l 6 Printed by F. Liebermann in Die Heiligen Englands (Hannover 1889), and by W. de GrayBirch in the Register of Hyde Abbey, 1892. Congresbury and Glastonbury are the only pilgrimshrines in Somerset mentioned in this very important do cument.

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SAINT CONGAR

Nicholas and St. Congar ’, and in 1501 Wm. Nedys directed that he was ‘ to be buried

in the church of St. Congar ’, and left ‘ to St. Conggur a heffer, to find a light ’.With the exception of the statement in the ‘ Resting Places I,nothing is known of

Congresbury between the time of Alfred and the reign of King Cnut, who gave his

mass-priest (chaplain) Dudoc the same estates Alfred had given Asser, viz., Congresbury

and Banwell. In 1033 Dudoc became Bishop of Wells, and at his death (in IO~O),

bequeathed them to the See. Earl Harold, however, interfered and seized Congresbury

and Banwell, and although Dudoc’s successor, Bishop Giso, persuaded William the

Conqueror to restore Banwell, the Church of Wells did not recover Congresbury till the

time of King John.

In the middle of the 11th century, then, the clergy of Wells were particularly

interested in Congresbury. Its saint was no doubt commemorated in the services of the

cathedral and his name begins to appear (always on 27 November) in Somerset kalendars.It is

a Wells kalendar belonging to the episcopate of Bishop Giso (1061-1088) and contains on

27 November the entry :--‘ Sancti Congari confessoris ’.The second (Cambridge Univ. Libr. MS. KK, v. 32) is described by Mr F.

Wormald (18) as ‘ West Country, late XI cent.’ (it contains the names of S. Nectan, S.Petroc and S.Neot). I n this the entry ‘ Sancti Congari confessoris ’ is an addition.

The late Dean of Wells, Dr J. Armitage Robinson, discovered two other references

to S. Congar in Wells liturgical documents of the 15th century. In 1927 he found that

‘ a leaf of parchment, measuring 1 6 i inches by 12 nches, in a handwriting of the 15th

century, torn from a Wells breviary . . . folded and used as the cover of the Communar’s

Accounts of the year ending Michaelmas 1591 ’, contained, among other collects for

Saints’ Days, one for the feast of S. Cungar.

The earliest of these is that found in Brit. Mus. Cotton MS. Vit. A, XVIII (17).

‘ Suncti Cunguri secundum usurn Well’. Or[ac io ] .Deus qui beatum Cungarum fide et moribus preclarum ad regna transtulisti celes-

tia : fac nobis ipsius suffragiis hostium nostrorum oblectamenta inoffensis gressibus

transire, et per grata temporalium incrementa eterne prosperitatis premia sentire.

Per ’.He also discovered that a manuscript in the British Museum (Add. MS. 6059)

contains a Wells kalendar, written in 1463, with the name of S. Congar :

‘ 27 Nov. Sci. Congari cf. [= confessoris] Well’ iii l[e]c[tiones] Well’ ’.(19).T w o Somerset monasteries honoured S. Congar. The 13th century kalendar of

the breviary of Muchelney Abbey has on 27 November the entry (written in blue and red,as a sign that it was a principal feast) : ‘ S. Cunegari confessoris ’ (20). The late 14th

century kalendar of the Priory of Dunster (a cell of Bath Abbey) (21) has on the same

day : ‘ S. Congari confessoris. 3 lc ’.S. Congar is also invoked in the Litany of a Psalter from Winchester of about

1060 (22).

Printed by Mr F. Wormald in English Kalendars before AD . I 100 Henq Bradshaw Society,193419 PP- 99-111.

l8 ib. p. 71 .

19JournaEof Theological Stu die s, 1928, p. I , 4.

20 Brit . Mus., Add. MSS. 43405, 43406, see J. Armitage Robinson, Muchelney Memoranda

B.M. Add. hiss. 10628, printed in English Benedictine Kalendars after 1100 edited by(Somerset Record Society, vol. XLII) , p. 58.

F. Wormald for the H.B.S., 1 9 3 4 pp. 145-60.

23 B.M. Arundel MSS. 60, f . 131b, (see Wormald, op. cit., p. 148).

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ANTI QUI TY

We have thus plenty of evidence for the cult of S. Congar at Congresbury, at WellsCathedral and throughout Somerset during the Middle Ages. It is surprising, then, to

find that Congresbury church is not dedicated to S. Congar but to S. Andrew. S.

Andrew is the patron saint of the cathedral, and he seems to have taken the place of the

old local saint both at Congresbury and at Banwell when they definitely became diocesan

property. Perhaps the fact that S. Congar’s day is only three days before that of S.

Andrew may have led to the two festivals being combined in the observance of thePatronal Feast. The annual Fair is on 14 September, for some reason unknown (23).

We have seen that in any case S. Congar continued to be honoured there till the

Reformation.

At some time during the 11th or 12th centuries an attempt was made in Somerset towrite a Life of the eponym of Congresbury. This Life, in its complete form, has only

come down to us in a 16th century text, part of a bundle of fifteen Lives, all from the

same source, added to the first printed edition of the famous collection of Lives of

English and British saints called Nova Legenda Anglie (24), when it appeared in 1516.

The previous edition, written in 1499, contained none of them. It is to be remarked

that three (25) of these Lives, in addition to that of S. Congar, are of saints speciallyhonoured in Somerset. But in 1918 the late Dean of Wells discovered ‘ a fragment ofparchment, used as the cover of a paper book written about the beginning of the 17th

century ’. This parchment binding had been ‘ cut out of a book of the Gospels, written

at the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century ’. It must have been a

blank page, on which had afterwards been written, in a hand of the middle of the 12th

century, part of the service for Maunday Thursday. This is followed by what proved to

be the greater part of a much older version of the De Sancto Cungaro than that in NovaLegenda Anglie. Dr Robinson published in

I919 in The Journal of Theological Studies (2 6 ) a critical edition of this imperfect Life,

and in a subsequent issue (26”) added some valuable Notes and Studies on the problems

it presents. His discovery aroused great interest among scholars and led to a searching

investigation into the whole subject of the cult of S. Congar by Father Grosjean, theBollandist, in an article entitled Cyngar Sant, to which I have already referred.

I shall follow the example of Dr Robinson and Fr. Grosjean by calling these two

versions of the Life of S. Cungar, the earlier and fragmentary one and the later and

complete one, ‘ W ’ and ‘ H ’ respectively.

T o enable the reader to follow the remarks I propose to make about them, it will

be necessary to begin with an analysis of their contents. There is no need to reprinteither the Latin versions, now easily accessible, or Dr Robinson’s critical apparatus, and

to give a full translation of the loads of verbiage and worthless rhetorical amplifications

(meant to be pious reflections) with which the narrative is encumbered would be tedious

in the extreme-a literal translation of some passages would sound ludicrous to the

modern reader. I will try, however, to keep as near as I can to the original, following Was far as it goes, noting a few of the variant readings of H (many of which are of noparticular interest), and supplying from the latter the chapters missing in W.

The last five chapters only are missing.

23The whole question is discussed by Fr. Grosjean, op. cit. pp. 111-16.

24 The most easily accessible edition is that by Dr Carl Horstman, Oxford, 1901.

26 Those of S.Decuman, patron of Watchet, of King Edgar and of S. Joseph of Arimathea.

”Vol. XX, no. 78, pp. 97-108.

TheDe Sancto Cungaro, heremita e t confessore is printed in vol. I, pp. 248-54.

Vol. XXIII, no. 89 , pp . 15-22.

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S A I N T C O N G A R

Th ere is no t i tle to th e Life of S. Cungar (27) in W. I t begins abrupt ly with therubr ic :-

‘ HERE E G I N THE [HEADINGS OF THE] CHAPTERS (28) O F THE FOLLOWING BOOK.( I ) Of the prayers and fasts of the parents of S. Cungar in order to banish [ the

( 2 ) Of the boy’s conception and nativity.(3) Of his election by God, his most devout life and how he departed [from his

home].

(4) Ho w the citizens followed him.( 5 ) Of his pilgrimage.(6) Of the revelat ion made to him by an angel , and how he came to the Summer

Region .( 7 ) Ho w an angel warned him in a dream .(8) H ow h e used to fas t and b athe in cold water.(9 ) Ho w a reedy fen became a meadow.(10)How [his] staff grew into a yew tree.( I I ) Of King Ini’s gift.(12) Ho w K ing Edg ar was blinded.(13) Ho w [ the saint] withdrew to Wales (Gual ia) .(14) Cu t away by t he binder] .(15) How Kin g Poulentus was bl inded.( 16 ) Horn Prince Peb iau was liquefied.

(17) Of the most holy Cungar’s death ’.

mother’s] barrenness.

(Each of these headings is repeate d, in capital letters, before the chap ter it summarizes) .

( I ) A certain emperor of Con stantino ple earnestly hoped to beget a child of hisempress Luci t ia , but in vain . So they began assiduously to fast, to give alms, and to

pra y faithfully an d unceasingly to Almighty Go d tha t the G iver of all gifts wo uld give (29)the m a son to succeed his father and reign after his death. And by God’s mercy their

praye rs were heard an d their alms accepted.(2) The most religious empress conceives (30) nd bear s a son, to the joy of his

paren ts and ‘ compatr iots ’. T h e nobles and grea t men come to the Imper ia l Cour t ,giving praise to the goodness of the Giver [of all good things] Who had heard theirprayer.

(3) The ch i ld g rows up in to a handsome youth , so charming that many a kingand queen desired to have him as a husband for their daughter . Final ly , the daughterof a mo st noble king is betrothed t o him. Bu t he, despising all glory tha t passes away,had resolved to keep his virginity inviolate, and left the court in the disguise of a beggar,telling nobody of his in tent ions . Gu ided by God’s inspirat ion, he ar rived at the shores

of the Ty rrene Sea. W hen (31) he sho uld have been hu nt ing in the woods, he used tobetake himself, without anyone knowing it, to a place of prayer (diziinum oratorizim),

p7 T he name is uniformly spelt Cungarzis both in W. an d H .

78 There are no headings in H., but each chapter begins with an extra-large capital letter.2 9 Omnium donorum donator donaret.

30 Feliciter concepit et post conceptionem felicius geweruvit. cf . Vita S . Iltuti, c. I . (c.B.s.,p . I j9) , ‘ concepit, et post conceptionem feliciter genuit filium ’,an d Vita S. Gundlei, c. 2 (C.B.S.,p. 146), concepit ; post con ceptionem filium feliciter Cadocum generavit ’.

T he following passage (down to the end of the chapter) is very unsuitable in its presentposition. It should of course have preceded the s tory of his flight from th e court.

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ANTIQUITY

repeat ing over and over again the Lord’s Prayer . W hen he was urged by t he cour t iersto play at dice, he would forsake them , without regard f or their entreatie s, an d hastento ecclcsiastica oracula (32), where he would long remain, genuflecting and prayingearnestly. Inste ad of coming to the Emp eror’s banq uet , he would content himself witha frugal supp er, frequently fasting, ti ll all who s aw an d hea rd of his do ings rejoiced o ver

the young man’s marvellous devotion and fervour.(4) H is paren ts were grieved over the dep artu re of their only son, an d their subjects,

also greatly t roubled, set out , at the Emperor’s comm and, to fol low the yo ung m an, and,if they could f ind him, brin g him back by force. Th ey hastened after him to the shoreof the sea. T h e young m an saw the pur suer s comingand that he had a chance of escaping in a ship whose sails were already set, while afavourable wind was blowing. H e safely reached the shore (33), and th us escaped thepursu i t he d readed.

(5) [T he writer begins anew (after a needless repetition of wha t he has ju st said) todescribe Cungar’s hatred for the worldly life of the Imper ial cour t, and adds a s tatem entthat he avoided tournam ents, bein g resolved to f ight only against our ancient enem y(Satan). Chosen to succeed his fathe r as Em pero r, he preferred th e choice of a heavenlyFa ther , an d of his ow n free will chose (34) to forsake his native la nd a nd become apilgr im, bearing in min d the Gospel precept (34a) and de termined to fulfil the same].

(6) Cungar wished to put as great a distance as possible between himself and hishome, f or fear, if his family heard t ha t he was still in th e vicinity, they would make fres hefforts to persuade h im to return. So, ins tructed by an angel , he depar ted f rom theshores of the Tir re ne Sea and came to I taly , f rom I taly he crossed the Alps to G aul , andfrom Gaul he sai led to Br i tain . He desired above all things to live the solitary life,wherefore he m ade en quir ies , dur in g the course of his journey , as to places suitable fora hermi t to live in (35). W ith this end in view, he made his way to the distr ict which thenatives called, and still call (36), h e ‘ Sum me r Region ’ (37). Guid ed b y a f resh angelicrevelation, he f inally cam e to a m ost attractive place, sh ut in by water and reed-beds,

afterwards called after him Cungrisberiu. For Cungar was called back to the [ land ofthe] Britons (38), and, very properly, sowed the r ivers of his doctr ine (39) hroughout

A ship was th ere, ready to sail.

32 Oraculum is used in the Vita S. Dubricii (B.L.D., p. 81) to mean a chapel.33 T he w riter forgets that he has already brought his hero to the shore (in c. 3).34 Elegerant . . . electionem . . . Electus . . . elegit.

34a Matt. 10 37, combined with Luke 14 2 6 .

35 cf. Vita S. Nectani, Gotha MS. I, X I , f . SIa, ‘ ut terram heremitice vite aptam . . . ingre-deretur . . . didicerunt tam in Devonia quam in Comubia . . . multa esse loca nemorosa et

vite heremetice aptissima ’.36 ‘ Quam sic incolae nominabant et nominant ’, cf . Vitae Gildae (Mommsen’s ed. 110, 0)

nominata fuit et adhuc nominatur a Britannis indigenis’ ; Vita S . Gundleii (c . 9), ‘ qui nunc manet

et manebit . . . Unde nominatus, et nominatur Fons Gundliu ’ ; and Vita S. Tathei (C.B.S.,p. 264), ‘ patrem vocabant et adhuc vocant indigene ’.

87 H . alters to Somersete.

3 8 H .has altered the words and meaning of this sentence, and inserted a statement thatCungar is known am ong the Welsh as Doccuinus. Th e question of this insertion, which is of vitalimportance to th e hagiographical student, will be dealt w ith in part 2 .

This phrase is made up of a clumsycombination of two plagiarisms,-one from the Vita Cudoci,c. 7 (C.B.S., p. 36), ‘ fluenta d octrinaflagrantius sitiens . . . patriae ’, the other from th e Vita Gildae (109, 3) , ‘ docuit . . . seminanssemen . . . celestis doctrinae ’.

39 ‘ Doctrina sue fluenta seminabat per patriam ’.

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his native land (patrza),-wherever he went, he ceased not to preach, according to

the Apostle’s precept. Whatever was given him by kings and rich men, he a t once

distributed to t he poor (4.0).

(7) While Cungar was purposing to stay i n this place, it was revealed to him by an

angel in a dream (41) that next day he would see a boar, and that the place where he

should see it was to be the site on which he was to build a place to dwell in (lzubitacuhim)and, after that, an oratory. On awaking, he rejoiced greatly, and, on going forth, he

unexpectedly came across a boar lying in a reedy spot. T h e boar took fright and fled.

T he most holy Cungar observed th e beauty of the place, with its woods and waters, and

exclaimed with rapture , ‘ This is the place I have sought for. Here will I abide and serve

the Holy Trinity ’, He proceeded to build the habitaculum and mark out the bounds of

the cemetery. Having done so, he founded an oratory in honour of the Holy Trinity (42).(8) He continued for a long time in this place, which pleased him well, wearing a

n’licium (under-garment of goat’s hair), living a blameless life, fasting and praying

continually. Every morning he plunged himself in cold water, staying in it till he had

said the Lord’s Prayer three times, after which he returned to the ch urch and remained

there in vigil and prayer addressed to the Creator of all things (43). But at the ninth

hour he took some barley bread (44))houg h he never had a full meal. His body became

emaciated, and to see him you would think him fever-stricken (44a). Mos t dear to him

4u ‘ Omnia que dzbantur illi, a regibus et divitibus, data continuo erogabat pauperibus ’.cf. Vitu Iltuti, c. I I (C.B.S., 167),‘ argiter dabat quicquid dabant in manibus ’; and Vitu S. Tuthei(C.B.S., p . 264), ‘ quicquid dabatur illi, largiter dabat’; and Vita Gildue (107, 13), ‘ quicquiddebatur ei, continuo impendebat pauperibus ’.

41 This story is imitated from an exactly similar one in the Vita Cudoci, c. 5 (C.B.S., pp. 33 , 4),‘ arundinetum . . , angelus Domini apparuit in sompnis, dicens ei, Oratio tua esaudita est , . .locum edificandi oratorii invenies . . . aprum perspicies . . . fundamentum templi tui innomine Sancte Trinitatis jacias ’.

‘ Construxit habitaculum . . . cimiterium. Hoc emenso, fundavit in honore sanctae

Trinitatis oratorium ’. Cf. Vita S. Dubricii (B.L.D., pp. 80, SI), ‘ angelus per somnium dicens

. . . ubicunque inveneris suem . . . funda in nomine sancte Trinitatis habitaculum simul etoraculum ’ ; Vitu S . Iltuti, c. 7 (C.B.S., p . 163), ‘ construens habitaculum, presule Dubricio

designante cimiterii modum, et in medio, in honore summe at individue Trinitatis, oratorii

fundamentum ’. Th e Breton monk Wnnonoc, in his Vita Puuli Aureliuni, twice describes thefoundation of a monastery by S. Paul of LCon as consisting of the building of ‘ habitacula et

parvum oratorium ’.43 ‘ Omni hora matutina intrabat in frigidarn aquam, ibi permanens quandiu diceretur ah eo

tribus vicibus dominica oratio, revertebatur ad ecclesiam vigilans et exorans summi creatoris omni-

potentiam ’. This sentence is found, in almost identical terms, in three contemporary Lives,

those of S. Gildas, S. Iltut and S. Gundleus (Gwynllyw). In the Vitu Gildae (R4.107, 17) it runs

‘Fluvialem aquam intrare solebat media nocte, ubi rnanebat stabilitus donec diceretur ab ips0 ter

oratio dominica : . . . repetebat suum oratorium ; ibi exorabat genuflectendo divinam maiestatem

usque diem clarum ’: in the Vitu Iltuti, ‘ Nocte media ante matutinas abluebat se aqua frigida,

sic sustinens, quamdiu posset ter dici oratio dominica ; deinde visitat ccclesiam, genuflectensatque orans summi conditoris omnipotentiam ’ (c. 7) : in the Vita S. Gundlei (c. fi), ‘ Nocte enimmedia surgebant de lectulis, et redibant post lavacrum lateribus frigidissimis, inde induti visitabantecclesias, exorando et inclinando usque diem ante aras ’.

44 This detail is in the Vi ta Iltuti, c. 19, ‘ hora nona . . . panis unus ordeiceus ’.44* Macies tenuaverat corpus macrum : talem videntes dicebant illum esse languidum aut

febricitatum ’. cf. Vita Gildue (M. 107, 17),‘ Macies apparebat in facie ; quasi quidarn febricitansvidebatur ; Vitu S. Gundlei, ‘ facies amborum pallebant, ut languentes febribus ’ ; the author ofthe Vita Il tuti describeshis wife as ‘ veluti febricitans pailida ’ (c. 16).

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ANTIQUITY

was the eremitical life, after the example of Paul, the first hermit, and Saint Antony ( a h ) .[The whole of this chapter is a series of plagiarisms from other Lives of saints!.

(9 ) This [is the] first miracle lwhich was] wrought by the most righteous Cungar,through the divine clemency and through his sanctity and prayers ; the marshy and

reedy district round his settlement ( c u l t u r ~ ) , hich was then utterly useless, was trans-

formed into fertile fields and rich pasture land. When this miracle became known,everybody throughout England and throughout Britain generally, magnified God’s

chosen servant Cungar, saying: [the author repeats what he has said in a couple of

hexameters].

(10) One day, after this miracle, while the most revered Cungar was standing in

the churchyard (cimiterio) surrounded by his clerks, he wished that a yew-tree might

grow there, to provide shade from the summer heat, and, with its spreading branches,

to ornament the churchyard. As he formed the wish, he fixed in the ground the staff

(baculus)he was holding in his hands, which was made of yew. He left go of it, and, when

he put his hand on it again, he could not pluck it out. Next day it began, in the sight of

a crowd of bystanders, to bear leaves, and afterwards grew into a huge spreading tree,

and fulfilled the most holy Cungar’s prayer by giving shade from the hot sun to clerks

and people in time of summer. [The author again summarizes the chapter in a pair of

hexameters].

(I I ) When the news of these marvels became generally known, Inius (45), the most

generous King of the English, generously and freely gave to the venerable Cungar all the

territory lying round Cuggrisberia (M),nd promised that its sanctuary (refugium)should be inviolate, and that, as long as he lived, the saint’s prayers should never be

disturbed by the noisy presence of the royal soldiers. The same king, after he gave

the land, would never visit the place (47) thus marked out as to be honoured, lest he

should in any way interrupt the honourable Cungar in his constant round of prayer, and

in following ages other kings, his successors, never dared to visit or even. to look at the

venerable place. And those who did visit and gaze at it were immediately struck down by

sickness, or did not live long after they had done so. [The author repeats the previoussentence in different words, in order to emphasize the statement].

(12)(a)dgar, King of the English, while hunting one day in the forest, near the

locus of the saint, approached it all unawares ; he saw what he did not wish to behold,

and after beholding it was grieved from his inmost heart, saying, ‘ Into Thy hands Icommend my spirit : Thou has redeemed me ’ 49).

He did penance for unlawfully looking at the holy place, gave much land to God and

S. Cungar, and asked all the clergy of the same territory to pray to the Lord that he

might not suffer for his rashness and die before his time. He returned from his hunting

44b cf. Vztu GiZdue (M. 107, r g ) , ‘ Jejunabat ut heremita Antonius ; orabat vir religiosissimuscilicio indutus ’; (our author has borrowed the last two words and inserted them in the firstsentenceof this chapter); and Vita 5.IZtuti(c. 19, .B.S., p . 174),sic Paulus et Antonius, primiheremite, fungebantur haustibus ’. In the Life of S. Nectun, too, we read that ‘ it came into hismind to imitate Antony, the greatest of the hermits, and the other Egyptian fathers of godly living,by embracing the observance of the eremitical life ’.

[W. here breaks off. H. continues as follows] :-

45 Ina in H.

4 8 The heading of this chapter in W., De obcecutione Ed gar i regis, does not correctly describeits contents, and is probably the error of a scribe whose eye caught the heading of c. 16, whichbegins ‘ De obcecatione ’.

46 CungresbiriaH. 4 7 or, ‘ monastery ’ (locus).

49Ps.1 : 6 .

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S A I N T C O N G A R

full of forboding , entered th e royal palace, was struck do wn by deadly languor, a nd die don the ni nth day. Th is event stil l furth er increased the fear of violating the privilegeof this place which m any of the kings who were his predecessors had shown.

(13) T h e beloved of G od, Cun gar , then appointed twelve canons in that sameoratory of his, to live there according to monastic rule and serve God (50) devoutly inthe same temple in honour of the holy and undivided Tr ini ty (51). This temple ,originally woven with wattle (52), he had rebuilt in stone. M ultitu des of sick person scame th i ther to S. Cun gar from every quarte r , to be healed by him of their diseases, andby th e grace of G od he healed the m all , whatever the ir infirmities, af ter invoking the holynam e of the Tr ini ty . But the man of G od f inding that al l th is was keeping him f rom hisbeloved solitude and preventing him from being ' ins tant in prayer '(53), began to con-side r within himself how he might leave tha t place. H e had hea rd tha t beyond theestuary of the Severn there were lonely places sui table for his purpose, an d he determinedto visit them, and, if they pleased him, serve God there more devotedly because moresecretly. So he set out for the seashore, accompanied by his clerks and a company ofpeop le of bo th sexes, who were weeping at the thou ght of losing their father a nd fai thful

defen der. T h e blessed Cunga r, and certain of his clerks who m he retained w ith him ,crossed over to the region of Glatmorcantia a nd safely landed in th e port of the T a m (54).Finally h e arr ived at a stee p hill ( a d arduum montem), dis tant f rom the sea not less than as tad ium. He ascended it and found there a copious spring, near which he built ahabitaculum an d began to mark o ut a cemetery.

(14) h e following n ight, however, while he was sleeping, he h ad a vision of anangel, who warn ed him to forsake at once the place he had f ixed on and to proceed t oanothe r place dest ined for him by God. O n awaking, he pond ered over the vision, and ,leaving the place he ha d beg un to inha bit, wen t a li t tle distance furthe r on, ti ll he cam e toa stee p hill, w hich he saw at once was the spo t fulf il ling the angel's promise. [H isreflexions are expressed in four hexameters] . H e then proceeded to constru ct a building ,

5 0 C . constituit duodecim canonicos, qui regulariter viverent et . . . deservirent (he repeats thestatement in c. IS). cf. Vi ta Cadoci, c. 45, ' Sanctus Cadocus constituit XXXVI canonicos, qui . . .regulariter servirent '. In the same way S. Tatheus ' n honore sancte et individue Trinitatisfundavit temp lum, in quo constituit duodecim canonicos ' (Vita Tathei , C.B.S., p . 258).

51 cf. the passage in c. 7, imitated, as we have seen, from a similar one in the Vi ta Cadoci, c.5 . Our author repeats the statement in chapters 14 nd 1 5 , and there are other instances ofdevotion t o the T rinity in chapters 7 and 13. The re are two references to churches built in hono urof the T rinity in the Vit a Gildae, three in the Liber Landavensis (pp. 80, 161, 62),one in the VitaTathei and one in th e Vita Il tuti (which also contains three other references to the devotion tothe Trinity). To represent Celtic saints dedicating churches to the Trinity is, of course, ananachronism, the fancy of Norman clerks. T h e practice spread on the Continent in the9th century owing to the influence of S. Benedict of Aniane. He was at St. Deiiis from827-829, and on I November, 832 he abbot, Hilduin, dedicated an altar there to the Trinity

(apparently in the nave) and th e Em peror Charles the Bald was buried behind it. In a charter herefers to th e seven lights which burnt before it-' septem luminaria ante altare sancte Trinitatis,post quod nos, humanis solutum legibus, sepeliri optamus '. In 835 there was an altar of theTrinity in the abbey of Notre Dame at Le Mans.

52 Ex v iq i s et tabulis contectum, cf. Vi ta Gundlei, c. 5 (C.B.S., p. 148) abulis et virgis fundavittemplum '.

53 Rom. 12 , 1 2 .

54cf. Vita Iltuti, c. 25, ' pervenit ad Gulatmorcantiam . . . ad ripam Tamii fluminis'(In H. Tamensi is by mistake printed Camensi).

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ANTIQUITY

measure ou t a cemetery, a nd f inally to found a n oratory in honou r of the holy and un -divided Trinity.

( I 5) (55) After he had decided to set t le there, a ploughman of Poulentus, King ofGlatmorcant , came one day to the place, and, when h e found tha t the blessed Cun gar hadbui l t a hermitage there without the king’s permission, he said to him, with indignation,

‘ It is qui te wrong for an unknown stranger to come an d dwell on royal ter r i tory, withoutconsulting my Lord King Poulentus. H e d idso, telling the king that a hermit called Cungar, who was a stranger, had settled in hisfields (ngellis re@) without leave. Kin g Poulentus blazed u p when he heard this andhastened to view the place. Findin g the repor t t rue, he became f rant ic with rage, abusedthe blessed m an in furious language and bade him d epar t immediately . Cungar replied‘ mildly ’ [ in four hexameters] , refusing to depar t and praying that the king might bechastened f rom on high. His prayer was answered and the king immediately becameblind, but , on his repentance for his insolence to the saint , f rom w hom he asked, on hisknees, for forgiveness and for his intercession, C unga r prayed f or him a nd his sight wasrestored, so tha t he actually saw more clearly than he d id before. After this miracle,Ki ng Po ulentus gave the blessed Cun gar all th e terr itory arou nd the place he had chosen,

and the sa in t bu i lt a dwelling-place in which he served God devoutly and undisturbed.He bui l t an oratory in the same place in honour of the holy and undivided Tr ini ty[the writer forgets tha t he had sta ted that th e saint had d one this already], in which, as

at Cungresbiria, he placed twelve canons to serve G od according to a Rule. He himself,as a vigilant fathe r, had th e charge of both monasteries and frequently visited each inperson.

(16) A certain prince named Pebian (56) desired to rob Saint Cungar , who alsowas called Doccuinus am ong the W elsh, because h e taug ht (doccbat) hem th e way of theLo rd, desired, I say, to rob him of great part of the land, which, both by the gif t of theking and by the at tes tation of the neighbours , belonged t o his church. But the blessedCungar, trusting in the testimony of his conscience, would not yield to this unjustexaction, and obtained that a f ixed day should be appointed, on which, by the verdictof sure and fai thful judges, d rawn f rom the whole neighbourhood, the quest ion of theown ership of the aforesaid piece of land might be settled. O n the day appo inted forthe enquiry a m ult i tude of neighbours came together , to decide as to the grant which hadbeen made by King Poulentus, in whose jurisdiction the aforesaid piece of land lay.T h e prince named Pe bian, accompanied by a great crowd of witnesses, tr ied his utm ostto wrong the blessed Cungar in the matter , but , ‘ l ike wax melt ing in th e h eat of th efire ’ (57), he was melted away to nothing in th e presence of all tha t were there. An d allwho saw it feared an d glorified Go d, who had judg ed a jus t judgm ent and del ivered theinnocent f rom the hand of the mighty oppressor, br inging on his head the p unishm enthe had deserved (58). And henceforward the blessed Cun gar was hon oured by allwho had heard of his fam e and his holiness, a nd was venerated by all , as an angel of G od.

(17) (59) Now when the blessed Cun gar saw that [ the inhabi tants of] bot h monas-teries-that at Cun gresbiri an d the one he had fou nde d in Wales-were walking in the

I will at once inform th e K ing of this ’.

55 Th e heading of this chapter (see p. 37) is imitated from the headings of c. 20 and c. 65 in

56 Th e heading in W. has, more correctly, Pebiuu.

57 Ps. 68, 2 , see Vi ta Cadnci, c. 39.58 Ps. 34 , 10 not Vulg.), z Chron. 6, 23, Vulg.59 In H. c. 16 and c. 17 are united to make a single chapter.

th e Vita Cadoci .

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SAINT CONGAR

fear of the Lord and bringing forth good fruit, there came into his mind a counsel inspired

from on high, which was that he should visit the church (Zimina)of the most blessed Peterand Paul and implore their prayers that he might find mercy with God, and afterwards

also visit Jerusalem and kiss the sacred places in which the Lord’s feet stood (60). So,having received licence to do this from Dubricius, Bishop of Llandaff (61),with his blessing,

and also permission from the monasteries under his care and from the parishioners of theneighbouring churches, he began his projected journey. He visited with devotion the

most holy church of the Apostles at Rome and implored the intercession of the innumer-

able other saints who sleep there, and then set out for Jerusalem, and after he had visited

the holy places in that city he received the reward won by his merits here and was trans-

lated to the heavenly realms. His companions brought him back thence to Congresbiria,

as the tradition we have received from those who have gone before us declares, through

the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be honour and glory for ever and ever.

(T o be completed in the June number)

Ps. 132, 7 (Vulg.)cf. Vita Tuthei (C.B.S. p. 258) ‘ licentia Landavensis episcopi ’.

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Cornwall Pilgrims